The Walker Boys
by CayaKat
Summary: Jason is just your typical sophmore with your typical expectations of life. But what happens when you throw him in with an electrocution accident and an alternate reality full of ninjas? A lot more than typical, that much is certain. ((Rated T for more some more freedom to write.))
1. The Accident

_((Welp, I decided to dust off my practically-unused FFN account and upload a new story I'm working on, in addition to a couple others, since I like how its turning out so far. I hope you guys enjoy!))_

* * *

This was unbelievable. This was _beyond _insane. It was completely and utterly_ impossible_. But there I was, standing in a body that wasn't mine, staring at familiar strangers who thought they knew me. How did I get here? I didn't have the foggiest idea. All I knew is that I was there, and it wasn't a dream. Even _my_ dreams never got _this_ whacky.

My day started out normal enough. You know, just your average teenage guy going to your average teenage high school. I trudged through my dull classes and chatted with my friends, not expecting anything out of the ordinary. We were all really excited for school to get out, since Zach was having his birthday party that afternoon. Everybody in my social group (which included just us four unpopular guys who shared a karate class) was expecting to have a really awesome pool party. True, it was a super chilly and windy day outside; but the community pool was indoors, and Zach loved swimming too much for us to go anywhere else.

It was during Biology when the power outage happened. I had been busy tinkering with my watch and ignoring Mr. Bernard as he rambled on about DNA and other boring stuff. But when I suddenly lost my source of light, it really startled me. I was lucky that my tiny watch parts didn't spill all over the place with how badly I jumped. The teacher abruptly paused his lecture and frowned at the ceiling, while the students started muttering enthusiastically. After all, anything that disrupted the regular school humdrum was something to get excited about.

"Alright, alright," Mr. Bernard called out over our voices, trying to calm us down. "I'll go see what happened. Collin, Natalie; you two are in charge."

When he exited the room, the noise level rose considerably. Collin, one of my friends, stood up and joined Natalie behind the teacher's desk at the front. Among the teachers, Collin and Natalie were known to be some of the most responsible. But behind their backs, my dark-clad friend wasn't actually all that trustworthy.

Once up in the front, he immediately started searching through Mr. Bernard's desk drawers for the yummy mints that were always kept there. I eagerly waited for him to find them; everybody knew that the mint candies were a rare treat (usually for good behavior), and my friend was bound to share them.

"Collin, knock it off," Natalie chastised, gently whacking him on the shoulder. She was probably the prettiest girl I'd _ever_ seen, and I felt a twinge of jealousy that Collin had a reason to be close to her.

"Make me," he replied, and stood up triumphantly with four white mints in hand. He grinned impishly at her, and then tossed one in my direction. As I nabbed the mint from the air, the other students started loudly whining.

"Dude!" "Come on, I want one, too!" "I'll tell Mr. Bernard if you don't give me one!"

Collin rolled his forest green eyes, and then obligingly grabbed another handful of mints. "Mints for everybody!"

Soon, nearly every sophomore in the dim classroom was unwrapping his or her very own candy, while my buddies and I carefully watched the door for the teacher's return. Natalie refused her own candy when Collin offered it to her.

"Just because everybody else here is a troublemaker doesn't mean I am," she scowled, making me feel guilty. Not wanting to be labeled as a troublemaker, I quickly chomped down on my mint and swallowed.

"Not gonna sell us out, though, right sis?" said Kane—another friend of mine—with a roguish grin, rolling his candy around in his mouth. "Sibling code of honor?"

Natalie crossed her arms, and sternly frowned at her brother. After a moment's hesitation, she sighed in defeat. "Yeah, yeah... I won't say anything." She raised a dainty pinkie finger, and added dryly, "Sibling code of honor."

Another reminder of why I didn't try to ask Natalie out: Kane would probably kill me. It was just one of those unwritten rules that you don't ask out your best friend's sister. You were just looking for trouble, especially if that best friend was Kane. The guy was a total hot head, and might punch my face in if he found out I had a crush on his sister. But even so, I couldn't help but gaze at her dreamily; she was the most perfect girl I knew.

Suddenly, Mr. Bernard returned, and everybody promptly shut up and sat down. We all watched with innocent expressions as our teacher shooed Collin and Natalie back to their seats. I half-wondered if his hearing was good enough to notice the muffled crunching sounds coming from throughout the room. With a grumpy sigh, the gray-haired man heavily sat down on his chair and held his face in his hands. Luckily, it seemed he was too irritated about something to bother paying attention to the fact we clearly stole most of his mints.

"Well," the biology teacher said at last, frowning at the class as if we caused the power outage. "Apparently the wind knocked out a power line, so we can't really do anything for a while. The principal said that we're going to shut down the school until it's fixed, so you all better call your parents. If you don't have a cell phone, borrow your friend's."

The chatter started up once more, and everybody whipped out their phones. Kane and I, along with a few others, had to go up to Mr. Bernard to retrieve our cellular devices. I guess you could say that the teacher didn't trust us enough to let us to keep them in our pockets during class time. And yet he was totally okay with people like _Python_, the school bully, to keep _their_ phones. It was absolutely unfair.

"Hey mom," Kane said, after dialing his home phone number. "I—no I didn't get in trouble… _Yes_ I'm sure about that. Look—" My friend grimaced in annoyance, which meant he was probably getting told off. "_Listen_, I… You know what? Here's Natalie." He irritably pushed his cell phone to his sister, who then more calmly talked to their adoptive mom.

I caught his eye and grinned knowingly, while waiting for my own parents to pick up. Kane jerked his thumb back to his cell phone and gave an exaggerated eye roll, to show off his frustration. As I chuckled lightly at his expression, the dialing tone suddenly stopped and I stuffed my finger in my ear to block out the classroom noise.

"Hello?" It was my mom who answered, naturally; Dad was busy at the auto repair shop.

"Hi, Mom," I said, trying very hard to ignore the noisy conversations around me.

"_Jason_," she said in a threatening tone. "What did you do?"

I caught Kane's eye and gave my own eye roll to tell him that my mom asked the same thing. My friend mouthed "_Parents are so suspicious!_" with an exasperated head shake, and then I refocused my attention on my call.

"Nothing," I assured her. "The school just got a power outage, so I need you to come pick me up."

Mom didn't answer right away, which meant she probably didn't believe me. I hoped she would, because I _really_ didn't want to get Mr. Bernard on the phone; it would be so embarrassing. Eventually she responded, "Oh, alright, I'll be there in a few. But if you're lying to me…"

"No worries, Mom," I laughed. "Wouldn't dream of it."

After we hung up, I meandered over to where the other guys were sitting. Collin could technically drive himself home, since he had a car, but he was nice enough to stick around while us other three waited for our parents.

"So, what're we gonna do about the party, birthday boy?" I asked, casually leaning on the desk behind me. "Should we just meet up at the pool at four like we planned?"

Zach shifted in his chair so that he could face the rest of us more comfortably, before thoughtfully responding, "Well, we're permitted to leave about three hours early. Perhaps we could go at two o'clock instead. We'd certainly have more time to spend swimming."

"Sounds good to me," Kane said with his signature smirk. "Less time bored and more time having fun is always A-Okay in my book!"

Collin wrinkled his nose, and warned us, "I'll have to ask my dad, though. He _really_ doesn't like veering from a schedule."

I smiled mischievously. "You'd think he'd be more _flexible_, being a dancer."

My raven-haired buddy face-palmed, groaning, "That wasn't even a good one, man. Besides, you know he focuses on singing."

"Well that explains it!" I exclaimed with an exaggerated gasp. "If he doesn't focus on dancing, that means he doesn't stretch often enough! No wonder he isn't flexible!"

"Dude," said Kane with a mild chuckle. "Either you're losing your touch or the power outage messed with your head."

"I blame the power outage," I decided, with a silly grin still plastered on my face. "I need my electricity to power my good jokes."

We lapsed into unimportant conversation—which involved a lot of complaining about homework and teachers—while we waited for our parents to text us when they arrived. As mushy as it sounded, I loved spending time with my friends; something about them made me feel complete. Even Zach and his quiet, formal attitude was still somebody I couldn't imagine being without. We'd been together for so many years—ever since we first met in our karate class—that were practically brothers. After we all got our black belts, even Sensei Wei was able to see how close we were, and we often ended up working together to help train the newer people. Sometimes we were told that we were inseparable, which was quite an achievement for a bundle of unrelated dudes, in my opinion. That was another reason as to why I didn't make a move on Natalie; there was no way I wanted to lose Kane as a friend.

A lot of my classmates already left by the time I finally got the text from my mom, "_I'm waiting out front._" I quickly texted her back with a "_Kk be out soon._" After that I snapped my sky blue phone shut and looked up at my friends.

"Well, looks like my ride's here," I announced. "See you all at two!"

They waved goodbye, and I jokingly gave a German military-style salute before heading out the door. It was really eerie walking down the school hallway with all the lights out. But at least it wasn't_ too_ bad with the trickle of students walking alongside me. Imagine if I had to walk alone in that place. Now _that_ would be really creepy. Like, Slenderman-level creepy. The idea sent shivers down my spine.

Outside, the wind nearly toppled me over. The muffled howling sound from inside the school didn't warn me about how powerful the breeze actually was. I shielded my eyes from the whirling dust and glanced around the parking lot, trying to figure out where my parents' old jalopy was waiting. I hoped that Mom didn't park too far away.

After a minute or so, I spotted the familiar filthy blue color of my family's car, and was even able to make out my mom's lightly-tanned face hiding behind the windshield. I gave a short wave so she knew it was me, before making my way across the winter-dried grassfield.

It was ridiculously hard to resist the buffeting wind, and I scowled in annoyance. Normally I was okay with windy conditions, but the dust was getting in my eyes and I kept almost falling over. I could hardly even hear the maintenance workers in their shouting match with one of the teachers. When I was nearly at the parking lot, I shut my eyes for a moment, trying to get relief from the tear-inducing grit.

That was my mistake.

I kept staggering forward against the wind, and just barely managed to hear the warning screams of the adults behind me. My eyes shot open, and I saw a sparking black line fly in my direction a heartbeat before it whipped my shoulder.

Electricity instantly coursed through my body, filling me to the brim with absolute pain. The wire had touched me for just a second, but the torturous energy still managed to course and rip its way through me. I didn't even have time to shriek in agony before my brain shut off from all the pain. I crashed to the ground, the entire world fading away in clumps of darkness.


	2. Familiar Strangers

_Jay…_

_You okay Jay…?_

Distant voices swirled around my head, but I could barely make sense of them. They sounded sort of familiar, but weirdly warped.

_Jay… Jay… Jay…_

_Wake up Jay…_

At last the voices faded away, and my eyes creaked open. It took a ridiculous amount of effort for that simple activity, and I realized all at once how exhausted I was. Did getting zapped with huge amounts of electricity make you really tired afterwards? Maybe. I wasn't sure how this worked.

My vision was incredibly blurry, and I laboriously blinked a couple times to clear it. At last I managed to comprehend the grinning face above me. Was that… Kane?

"Hey, sparkplug. Finished with your little nap?"

It certainly sounded a lot like Kane, but his voice was a little deeper like he was older. He seriously did look almost exactly like my best friend. But his eyes were supposed to be light blue, while this guy's were a deep brown. Not to mention that _hair_ was _atrocious_. While Kane used a little gel to keep his dark coffee locks in a short Mohawk, this dude had giant brown spikes rising out of his head. I frowned confusedly. Did the K-man have some older brother I never knew about? …And why was this guy wearing a red and black kimono-like thing with those random shoulder guards?

As I struggled to get into an upright position, Not-Kane shouted over his shoulder, "Hey Nya! He's awake!"

I had no clue who Nya was, but ignored his call. Maybe it was some nurse that was taking care of me. After taking in the area around me, I became even more bewildered. This definitely did _not_ look like Kane's house, if this guy was his brother, nor did it look like a hospital. It was some sort of stuffy room with wood paneling on all sides, almost as if I was in a ship. Outside the tiny window I could even spot what looked like… the ocean? But I lived nowhere near the ocean…

"Where am I?" I wondered aloud.

The guy standing next to me rolled his eyes. "Very funny, Jay. Don't make that kind of joke when Nya gets here; you'll get her all worked up thinking you have amnesia. She's already been worried sick since you passed out earlier."

Staring at him, I tried to understand what Not-Kane had just said. But it made absolutely no sense whatsoever. Did he call me Jay? Why would this mystery girl be worried about me? And I didn't just _pass out_; I was knocked unconscious after being electrocuted by that live wire.

"What?"

Not-Kane didn't get a chance to respond before somebody appeared at the doorway. I had to do a double-take, because this girl looked almost exactly like Natalie. But she was clearly quite a few years older, and had her hair cut way shorter than my crush did. And besides, Natalie would never wear an outlandish Japanese-style dress like that unless it was Halloween.

"Oh, Jay!" the girl exclaimed, and threw her arms around me in a tight hug. "Don't scare me like that!"

That was the second time somebody called me Jay, which meant they must've said it on purpose. "You mean Jason," I mumbled, blushing fiercely at the closeness of somebody so much like my crush.

"What?" The girl who I assumed must've been Nya stood back with a confused frown. "What do mean 'I mean Jason'?"

"My name isn't Jay," I explained. Maybe there was some sort of miscommunication with whoever took me to this weird hospital or something. "It's Jason."

"Are you okay, Jay?" I turned to see another guy all dressed up in some costumey gold getup enter the room. "Did I mess up your brain with all that lightning?"

I blinked in surprise. "Leon?" Upon further examination, though, this wasn't the super popular kid at school. The gold dude in the doorway had bright green irises, while Leon had hazel. But they could totally pass for twins if you stood them next to each other.

"Did you just call me 'Leon'?"

"Uh oh," said Not-Kane before I answered, with his eyebrows knit in worry. "Hey, Lloyd? Go get Zane, see if he can run a medical scan on Jay."

The gold guy named Lloyd nodded affirmatively before running off to fetch whoever was called Zane. Seconds later, he was back with another dude dressed up in a kimono, only with white trim instead of red. And this was _another_ person who looked almost exactly like one of my friends, except for a few obvious details. The guy I assumed to be Zane was like a pale version of Zach, and had comically tall, straight hair.

"Man," I laughed. "How'd you get your hair to defy gravity like that?"

Instead of rolling his eyes or giving some sort of amused reaction like I expected, though, Zane's expression became very serious. "My early analysis says that Jay is uninjured, but has perhaps suffered from some sort of mental trauma from the incident. I believe the best course of action would be to get Sensei to see what he can make of the situation."

"My name's not Jay!" I exclaimed, thoroughly annoyed at these people.

When I threw my arms up into the air in exasperation, though, I realized something was really off in my own appearance. I quickly stood up from the bunk bed I had been laying on, and took an once-over at what I was wearing. For some bizarre reason, I had the exact same sort of kimono these other guys did, except it was trimmed in a silky blue fabric.

"Uh, does anybody have a mirror?"

They all looked at me in even more confusion, but Lloyd hesitantly pointed to a doorway and I rushed over into the adjoining bathroom. I stared at the mirror above the sink for a moment before stifling a scream and clasping a hand over my mouth in horror.

The first thing I spotted that was completely wrong was my hair. It was supposed to be a really light tan, but this was some sort of reddish-brown that I had never seen before on my head. My skin was also a shade darker than I was used to; now it was about the same color as my mom's skin. Then there were my eyes. That was probably the freakiest change. While it was pretty easy to make skin and hair look different with some dye, it was practically impossible to change eye color. And they were _electric blue_, when they were supposed to be orbs of bright green.

My physique was exactly the same, and the scar on my eyebrow hadn't disappeared. But even with these somewhat comforting thoughts, something was very clear: This wasn't my body. I wasn't Jason anymore, I was some guy called Jay.

When looking at my new appearance became too much to bear, I rushed back out to the bedroom area and met the uneasy stares of my almost-friends. How was I supposed to explain this? That I wasn't actually Jay? That I just took over somebody else's body without meaning to? There was no possible way that these people would believe me. Heck, I wouldn't believe me!

"Jay?" Nya watched me with her scared eyes glistening with unshed tears. "What's wrong?"

I just stood there in shock, trying to think of a good excuse to leave. This was just so _insane _and mind-boggling _horrific_ that I needed some time alone to just sort it all out. Was I supposed to live somebody else's life from now on? What about my own life? Did this Jay guy take over my own body? What _on earth_ was going on here?!

"Jay, please say something," the girl begged of me. "Tell me what's wrong."

Before I could come up with a decent response, though, exhaustion overwhelmed me again. I swayed on my feet, and began tumbling towards the ground. I nearly missed the shout of alarm as everything turned black once again. The last thing I remember is being glad I didn't have to come up with a story to explain myself yet.

* * *

"Jason! _Jason!_ Oh, wake up, _please_!"

"Ma'am, I'm going to have to ask you to leave if you keep screaming. Your son is fine; he just fell asleep."

"He didn't _just _fall asleep; he fainted after acting like he didn't know me!"

"Ma'am, we're doing everything we can. He just needs time. Now, I'm going to have to ask you to leave if you don't calm down."

"_I AM CALM!_"

My eyes creaked open, just as slowly and painfully as they did last time. But I was super determined to get up this time; I was being called by my real name again. Could that whole thing have just been a dream? Did I really get to keep my life? It almost seemed too good to be true.

Blinking hard, my vision was assaulted by a barrage of white. I was definitely in a hospital room this time, not that weird wooden room. Soon I could make out the frightened face of my mom, yelling at a middle-aged woman wearing a nurse's outfit.

"Mom?" I asked hopefully, and she quickly snapped her head in my direction.

"Oh, Jason!" she cried, a relieved smile adorning her tear-stained face. "Don't scare me like that!"

I tried to sit up, but was gently pushed back down by the nurse. "Easy, now," the lady said, "Don't strain yourself."

"What happened exactly?" I asked, my voice cracking. Even though I was pretty sure that I had been zapped by a live wire and somehow transported to another universe, I wanted to make sure that my facts were straight.

"Oh, sweetheart…" I could feel my mom's slightly-wrinkled hand taking my own, and she told me, "The wind knocked out that broken power line at school, and it was flailing around and then hit your shoulder. You were electrocuted pretty badly, but luckily some man there knew CPR and saved your life. And then…"

She hesitated, like she wasn't sure if she should go on. I stared into her eyes expectantly, wanting her to continue. "Well…" Mom averted her eyes with a puckered brow. "When you woke up earlier, you… acted a bit strange. You started going on about how your name was Jay, and that I didn't look anything like your mother. You kept asking about some girl called Nya, and then just collapsed. I didn't know what to think. You really worried me."

I paled at what she said. Jay? Nya? Those were the exact same names in my dream. Could it have been an actual occurrence? Did I seriously switch bodies with that Jay guy? What if happened again?

"I-I know my name's Jason," I assured her, trying to mask my new panic. "And that you're my mom."

Mom threw her arms around me, trying to give me a tight hug without disturbing the medical instruments attached to my body. "Oh, thank the lord you're okay…" she murmured, as I hugged her back.

"And that I'm still me," I added with a faint smile. She chuckled lightly before releasing her hold and inspecting my face.

My mom suddenly lost the ghost of a smile that had danced upon her face, and whispered, "What happened to your eyes?"

"Um, what do you mean?" I tried to sound as unconcerned as possible, but it isn't exactly easy to be all that calm when your mom starts whispering in a horrified voice like that.

She fumbled around in her purse before pulling out a tiny mirror and shakily placed it in my tube-covered hand, still gaping wide-eyed at my face. I raised it so I could look directly into the slightly-blurred glass, and at first I was unable to see what was wrong. Then an increased beeping sound alerted everybody to the fact that my heart started racing a gazillion miles a minute.

Because it wasn't just my normal emerald eyes looking back at me. Within them, there were flecks of electric blue.


	3. Maybe It Wasn't A Dream

I was starting to think that the entire thing had just been a freaky dream, and that the electricity must've messed up my eyes or something. It certainly sounded a lot more likely than transporting to another universe for just a few minutes. I didn't tell anybody about my crazy dream, though, because it still kind of unnerved me. You'd be a pretty freaked out too, if you felt like you were transported to another reality. My mom agreed to not mention my "episode" when I acted like I was somebody else, especially since I couldn't remember it. All in all, everything went back to normal.

It was really annoying that I ended up spending the entire weekend in the hospital. Not only did I miss Zach's scheduled party on Friday, but I lost a perfectly good weekend! By the time they said I was okay to leave, it was already Monday. Luckily, I convinced my parents that I deserved a day off to "recover" from the hospital. So even though I didn't get to hang out with my friends like I usually do, I still managed to have a little free time that didn't involve lying around attached to a bunch of machines.

Speaking of my friends, I had found out from their visit on Saturday that they postponed Zach's pool party until I got out of the hospital. And then they were nice enough to also bring my Nintendo 3DS to the hospital so I had something to do. I felt like I couldn't show my gratefulness good enough.

"Jason!" Kane had laughed, shaking his head after I thanked them again. "We get it! You're glad! You don't need to say 'thank you' a bazillion times."

"Well, I really do appreciate it, y'know…"

"You're right, we do know," replied Collin with a smirk. "Besides, you're our friend! I know you'd do the same for us."

Zach nodded in agreement, and had added, "We're still heading to the pool regardless; I don't mind waiting a few days if it means _all_ my friends show up."

During the Monday I managed to free myself from schoolwork, I had basically spent the entire day playing video games and watching the clock. The gang was supposed to come over right after school to pick me up. Since I was finally out of the hospital, it was time to celebrate Zach's belated birthday party. I was super eager to go swimming, especially because my muscles needed a good stretch after all that laying down nonsense the doctors had me doing.

At last, there was a "ding dong" sound filling the house a little after 3:30, followed by Mom's shuffling footsteps towards the front entrance.

"Hi, Mrs. Walker. Where's Jason?" came Collin's muffled question.

"Back here!" I shouted, keeping my eyes glued to the TV screen. I was way too intent on passing this level of "Super Mario Galaxy" to bother greeting my friends properly.

The door to my room opened, bringing with it a breeze of heated air. "Hey you," said Kane, standing beyond my range of vision. "Ready to go?"

"Just… A minute…" I bit my lip anxiously as I tried to increase the pace at which I was beating up Bowser. The big virtual oaf wasn't dying quickly enough, much to my annoyance. "Die already!"

"Jason takes his games very seriously, doesn't he?" observed the birthday boy.

"_Thank you_, Zach," I muttered sarcastically, before making Mario do another spinning attack. The others chuckled, waiting patiently and knowing to not interrupt the last seconds of my gameplay. At last the villain was defeated, and a little golden star rose into the air. "Finally!"

Quickly, I managed to save my progress and shut down the game. My friends stood around watching while I jumped off my bed and tugged on a pair of sneakers. Then I rushed over to my dresser and started rummaging through the messy drawers.

"Come on, man," complained Kane. "We're wasting daylight here."

"No, it's not wasting if it's for a good reason," I replied cheekily. "And wearing a swimsuit when going to a pool party is a good reason. Unless, of course, you'd rather see me skinny-dipping."

I heard the slap of skin against skin, and I grinned to myself while I pulled out my navy swimming trunks. "Don't even… That is _not_ a nice mental picture."

I snatched a loose-fitting blue tank top out of my closet to finish off my swimming outfit. Even if Kane and Collin liked to show off their awesome builds from working out at karate class, I was still really self-conscious about my body.

"Alright, let's get going before too many weirdos start hogging the pool," I said, still smiling. "After all, that's our job."

We all piled out of my room and walked into the hallway. When I turned to close my door, I got a static shock from the doorknob. It wasn't bad or anything, but I suddenly felt weirdly woozy. Trying to shake off the tired feeling, I shouted goodbye to my mom. Once outside, it took extra effort to climb into the backseat of Collin's Toyota Corolla, and Zach had to push on my back so I wouldn't fall backwards. I worked my hardest to pretend I was just as alert as I was minutes ago, but, as we drove off, my eyelids started drooping against my will.

"Guys," I muttered lowly, my words slurred. "I don't feel too good…" Before I could get a response from any of them, I passed out.

* * *

"Ah… Jay… weren't even… elemental training… time…"

I couldn't quite piece together the words somebody was saying, as worn-out as I was. It was really getting annoying, all this being exhausted business. Getting electrocuted must've seriously frazzled my brain. I couldn't remember any other time when I would fall asleep randomly like this.

Wait. Something about the fractured sentence I heard captured my attention. Did I just hear the name "Jay?"

I groggily opened my eyes, and had a mild panic attack at seeing a familiar guy with spikes for hair frowning over me. No. This could _not_ be happening again. I was _over _this already.

"_No, no, no, no, no_," I moaned aloud, covering my face with my now-gloved hands to block out my vision. "It was supposed to just be a dream! This isn't real!"

I felt a comforting hand on my shoulder, and Not-Kane's worried voice proved that this was quite real. "Are you okay?"

"If by okay you mean freaking out because you guys aren't supposed to exist, then yeah! Peachy!" I cried out hysterically, and quickly scrambled to my feet.

As flustered and terrified as I was, I somehow managed to absorb a few details of the new room I was in. Actually, it wasn't a room at all; I was on the deck of a sailing ship, with a couple round pieces of equipment in the area. For some reason, we were flying in the air. But I wasn't exactly focused on that bizarre aspect with everything else to worry about.

"What are you talking about, Jay?" questioned yet _another_ familiar-but-not-exactly voice. I whirled around to face the source, coming face to face with a slightly older version of Collin. I didn't see a single trait that wasn't shared between them, except for the silver-black outfit. But I made sure not to call him by my friend's name; he was obviously _not_ the same guy, calling me "Jay."

"You guys are _supposed_ to be figments of my imagination!" I shouted, sounding much more whiny than normal. "Just delusions from when I was knocked out from that power line thing! Ah man, does that mean I got knocked out _again_? I'm supposed to be going to Zach's party, not spending my time unconscious! He even moved the date just so I could join! Or maybe I'm acting really weird like my mom said I did in the hospital. No, no, no, no, no. I don't _want_ this Jay guy taking over my body! I don't _want_ his life! Just _go away_! You all are _not _real! I'm _over_ this already!"

At the end of my rant, I finally took note of the shocked stares of my almost-friends. For a moment nobody did anything, and the only noise was my panting breath from yelling so much.

"This what you were talking about?" Not-Collin finally asked of Not-Kane.

"Yep. Zane, go get Sensei, please."

"On it."

While the pale version of Zach ran towards one of the doors leading off from the deck, I nervously watched the other two. If they tried to pin me down for this Sensei Wu dude, I'd better be ready to get the heck out of there. Not-Collin suddenly took a step forward, and I took a skittish step backwards.

"Calm down, man," he said softly, his arms raised in a pacifying gesture. "We're not gonna hurt you. We just want you answer a few questions." He took another step in my direction, but I managed to muster the courage to not run away. "See? It's okay. Now, do you know who we all are?"

My eyes flickered between them distrustfully, and I nervously squeaked, "Sort of?"

"What do you mean 'sort of?'" frowned the spiky-haired guy, his voice much harsher compared to Not-Collin's.

"Well…" My voice came out as a squeak again, and I cleared my throat. "You kinda look like my friend Kane, and you—" I nodded to the dude in the silver-black suit. "—you look just like Collin. Zane looks like Zach, Lloyd is practically Leon's twin, and Nya looks a lot like Natalie. But you guys are older and sorta have different appearances. And…" My eyes traveled to the side of the deck, where I could see the racing landscape below. "And you all live on a flying ship," I concluded dryly, the surprise of such a feature only now reaching me.

"These seem to be the symptoms of dissociative identity disorder, to me, Sensei." I whirled around to see Zane having returned with an old man in a long, snow-white beard. He kind of resembled Sensei Wei, but my teacher didn't have ridiculously long facial hair like that, and didn't wear ivory robes.

"Hmm…" The man I understood to be Sensei Wu walked over to me, his bamboo pole thudding against the wooden planks. "It does _appear_ that he has gained a second personality, but I sense that this is may be a different situation. What do you call yourself?"

"Uh… Jason."

The old guy nodded wisely, and asked, "Jason, what is the last thing you remember?"

"Well…" My eyes flitted over to Not-Collin for a second, and I answered, "I was in Collin's car and we were going to the pool. I got really tired for some reason, and then I woke up here."

"Hmm…" Sensei Wu stroked his beard, and just watched me. I was hoping he'd say something really smart or something, and tell me what the _pineapples_ was happening to me. If anybody knew how I could get home, it would definitely be the guy with the long white beard acting all sage-like. But all he did was stand there and look at me, which was very annoying.

When nobody said anything else, I exclaimed, "Okay, what was the point of that?! Are you just going to stare at me all day, or are you gonna help me get back home?"

"Jay—" I swiveled my head to glare at Not-Kane for calling me by the wrong name. "Er, sorry. Jason. So you don't have any idea who we really are, or where we are?"

"No!" I responded exasperatedly. "Of course not!"

"That could be fun." I whipped around to see Le—Lloyd smirking at me knowingly. Where did he come from? These guys were as stealthy as ninjas. "I could use my old tricks, and he wouldn't know what to expect."

"Let's not," suggested Zane, even though the corners of his mouth were curling upwards slightly. "It would hardly be fair."

"How about a new trick, then?"

My eyes widened as the gold-dressed dude raised his hand, and electricity started crackling between his fingers. Before I knew what was happening, an arc of blue energy struck from his hand and hit my side. I felt the shock travel through my body, but it didn't hurt at all. For a moment, I actually felt empowered and a little tickled by it.

Then the tired feeling swept through me once again, and I crumpled onto the deck.

"_Jay!_" came the surprised and worried shouts of my almost-friends. The vibrations of their feet shook the wooden boards as they all ran over to where I was laying face-up on the ground, my eyes fluttering shut once again.

I was able to make out Lloyd's frowning face as he muttered, "Sorry. That was just supposed to tickle you."

Before I passed out again, I groggily told him, "Yeah, well… Ya shouldn't mess with a dude who spent three days in the hospital… S'not cool…"

While everything faded to nothingness, the last thought that raced through my mind was: _Why me?_


End file.
